Amp Is a Motion and Gesture Activated LED Controller
An ESP32-based board designed for lighting up bicycles, scooters, skateboards, backpacks, and more.
Like vehicles, lights are essential for those riding bikes, walking or hiking with a backpack, and even skateboarding at night. Intentful Motion is set to release their Amp control board, which allows users to activate LED lighting using motions and gestures, an excellent solution for those that may be using their hands to maintain balance or don’t have access to an on/off switch. According to Intentful Motion, the Amp has four lighting channels, so users can string as many LED strips as they want and customize sections to act in different ways, including braking, turning, headlights, and more.
The Amp Smart Lighting Controller is designed around an ESP32 and features a three-axis accelerometer, USB Type-C port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, status LED, button, and four addressable LED ports. The board is powered by a 2000mAh battery, which provides estimated eight-hour battery life for 40 LEDs, and has over a year of life in standby mode.
“We’ve ridden thousands of miles with the Amp to find the ways it can break. It’s been street-tested on every surface ranging from silky smooth multi-use paths to pothole-riddled roads in Chicago, Washington DC, Boulder, Portland, Seattle, and Indianapolis. We’ve put all of this back into making a product that’s surprisingly resilient to the elements for its size," Intentful Motion explains. The company also states the Amp controller is entirely open source, and every bit of hardware and software stack will be well documented and released leading up to launch.
Users will be able to reprogram the Amp via USB or a six-pin program header, and will be able to drive both APA102 and WS212B style LED strips. Intentful Motion is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply in the coming weeks, but there is no word yet on the actual start date or pledge pricing.